Back in 2010 Richard Tracey, my predecessor as the Greater London Authority (GLA) Conservatives' Transport Spokesman, wrote and published a report entitled "Driverless Trains". The report made the case for the introduction of driverless trains on the London Underground. As Richard pointed out:

"Many other cities around the world, which have both new and old metro systems, run driverless trains. Indeed it's nothing particularly revolutionary in London either: the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) has been driverless since the 1980s and the Victoria, Central and Jubilee are all highly automated where drivers no longer actually drive the trains. Once upgrades are completed the Northern, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines will operate in the same way too."

The initial reaction of the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was sceptical. However we won him round to the idea and by 2014, Boris had promised that Transport for London – London's transport body that is chaired by the Mayor – would never buy another Tube train that required a driver. He also unveiled the design for a new Piccadilly Line train that was intended to be introduced in 2022.

When Sadiq Khan became Mayor in May 2016 I had two great concerns. The first was that he would destroy Transport for London's finances. Unfortunately, after just two years of his Mayoralty, Transport for London now expects to make a billion pound loss next year. In order to hold down fares, vital infrastructure improvements have been cancelled including new 27 new Tube trains that had been planned for the Northern and Jubilee Lines – two of London's busiest lines.

My second fear was that the new Mayor would be too afraid of the transport unions to proceed with sensible reforms that would benefit London Underground's passengers. Again his record so far has, unfortunately, proved me right, with a pattern emerging of Sadiq Khan caving into trade unions in order to stop strike action.

Given the great benefits to Londoners, in terms of safety, efficiency and cost, if the London Underground moves towards driverless operation, it would be appalling if Sadiq Khan seeks to stop the next generation of Tube trains for offering driverless capability.

Therefore it was very worrying when in response to my colleague, Tony Devenish's question on driverless trains he suggested that they would be a "risk [to] the safety of Londoners". This is not the evidence of the driverless trains operating in Copenhagen, Barcelona, Paris, Toulouse, Lyon, Rome, Milan, Budapest and many other cities in Europe and around the world. It is, however, the kind of response that I have encountered when the issue is raised with the RMT – the most militant transport union in the UK.

If Sadiq Khan chooses not to introduce driverless train operation whilst he is Mayor, then that would be frustrating. The real disaster would be if he did anything to impede the purchase of new trains with driverless capability. The key is that his successor must be able to do the right thing for Londoners. Rest assured my GLA Conservatives' colleagues and I will continue to push him all the way to make sure he doesn't deliberately undermine London's future.

Cllr Keith Prince is the former Leader of Redbridge Council in the United Kingdom, a current Councillor in Redbridge, and a past Councillor in Havering, and served as a Councillor for Gidea Park ward between 1990 and 1995 and was a non-executive advisor to Stephen Greenhalgh, the former Deputy Mayor for Policing & Crime. Councillor Prince was elected to the London Borough of Redbridge Council on 10 April 2003 and was Leader of the Council from May 2009 to June 2014 and was a former marketing manager for LBC Radio. He is a Member of the ECR Group in the CoR.